Business owners in the Niger Delta region have been charged to ensure strict adherence to globally accepted best practices in the day-to-day running of their businesses.
Regional coordinator, South-South of the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), Papanye Dark-Pedro, gave this charge from the sidelines of a recent event to promote made-in-Nigeria goods in Port Harcourt.
Don-Pedro also enjoined captain of industry to conduct their operations in way that will ensure positive environmental impact.
He noted that paying attention to international best practices in their operations would improve the quality of their goods and services, while increasing their patronage.
The SON South-South boss added that adherency to international best practice including environmentally friendly methods would help improve efficiency, maximize profit and resources, enhance customer relation and reduce waste as well as create more jobs.
The SON boos said business owners have to work at dispelling the belief that Nigerian goods and services are substandard.
According to him, “many Nigerians, especially the political class, use the quality of goods they patronize as a yardstick of measure for how modern or rich they are. This is so wrong because we at SON are working round the clock that Nigerians get value for their money and I tell you, a lot has improved in the business community in recent times. Nobody can regard made-in-Nigerian goods and service as substandard.
He observed that consumers are their own problem, stressing that they always prefer imported goods, which he said are oftentimes interior when compared to the same product that was product in Nigeria.

Tonye Nria-Dappa